Saturday, February 28, 2015

Exterminate the brutes

If the question is whether Roger Ailes really wants a race war for Christmas, one reasonable answer might be: Sure, it beats the heck out of a Red Ryder BB gun.

The top story here isn't all that interesting, unless you're deeply interested in mediocre features written at long distance. The fun story is the one in the No. 2 slot (this being a Friday afternoon homepage, a story so good it was back Saturday night), in which a brave Democrat is apparently -- well, explicitly -- "under fire" for daring to challenge the usurper "over radical Islam."Like most Fox stories, it's not literally fabricated, but it does rely on certain best-case understandings of real events -- the kind in which "I saw nuns get shot in the back of the head" is a perfectly standard representation of "I saw some really gross pictures, so shut up." The fun is in tracking down the parts of the 1,160-word tale that support the claims in the display type, which is worth cataloging in some detail:'KNIVES ARE OUT'Dem under fire for taking onObama over radical IslamThe hed on the story itself has a little more room to play with scare quotes:

... and the link itself holds lessons of its own: "hawaii-rising-dem-star-risks-future-to-take-on-obama-over-islamic-extremism"

The theme should be pretty clear: The craven libruls are turning on one of their own, now that she's exposed the Kenyan's lexical cowardice for what it is:

She was Hawaii's golden girl after winning a seat in Congress with support from top liberal groups, but now that Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been critical of President Obama, her political reputation in the bluest of blue states is taking a hit.

Hold that thought!That isn’t stopping the twice-deployed 33-year-old Army veteran from continuing to challenge the president, her home state's favorite son, over his refusal to identify terror groups like the Islamic State as driven by "radical Islam.”

“Every soldier knows this simple fact: If you don't know your enemy, you will not be able to defeat him,” Gabbard told FoxNews.com. “Our leaders must clearly identify the enemy as Islamist extremists, understand the ideology that is motivating them and attracting new recruits, and focus on defeating that enemy both militarily and ideologically.”

Gabbard has been hitting this message for weeks now, putting her at odds with many in her party who toe the line that the Islamic State should not be associated with Islam.

Waiting for a little documentation on "many in her party" and "toe the line"? That's beside the point; we're about to get to "under fire":

... Her comments have stunned political experts in her home state.

“It is very, very unusual for a junior member in the president's own party to criticize him,” said Colin Moore, assistant professor at the University of Hawaii Department of Political Science. “Especially for someone considered a rising star in the party. This is a serious gamble for her.”

Michael W. Perry, of Hawaii's most popular KSSK Radio's "Perry &
Price Show," said that "while Gabbard is correct in her 'emperor has no
clothes' moment, she may have lost her future seat on Hawaii's political
bench." He said she's committed "a mortal sin" by challenging Obama,
and "now the knives are out."

It's kind of hard to come "under fire" from an assistant professor* who's giving a professional evaluation of your public behavior, but at least we can trace the "knives are out" demi-quote to a right-wing radio host who managed to get in a shot at the Kenyan in passing. But enough political experts; it's on to the backlash:

For now, she's taking her hits in the media.

To save you the trouble, "the media" would be an online political outlet and a political columnist. Hard to see them outweighing the folks Fox brings up next:Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who directed the Defense Intelligence Agency, said this should not be a political issue. “[Gabbard] has taken a very courageous stand in a party that just refuses to face reality,” he said.

Decorated intelligence officer and noted specialist on Islamic law, Stephen Coughlin, who authored the book "Catastrophic Failure: Blindfolding America in the Face of Jihad," set for release in March, also sided with Gabbard. “Rep. Gabbard is correct as a matter of history, she is correct as a matter of current events, and she is correct of published Islamic law.”

In other words: No backlash, no knives, no fire -- unless you're always on guard against the next attempt to fundamentally transform America into a Third World sharia-Ebola nightmare. Like most of the news you see at Fox, it isn't a pack of lies so much as a morality play: Bad things happen to good people, because bad people, so be sure to eat your Wheaties and bone up on those Alinskyite tactics in case it ever happens to you. What makes Fox fun is how close it skates to Jack-and-the-Beanstalk territory without falling in.